By Daniel Schmid

In the debate over whether individuals can enforce rights under laws passed via the Spending Clause of Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, one significant truth clearly emerges from the recent Supreme Court decision in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic: states have the authority to defund Planned Parenthood through Medicaid, and there is nothing Abortion, Inc. can do about it. 

Medicaid’s Purpose and South Carolina’s Action 

Sixty years ago, Congress created Medicaid to provide health care services to those who Congress deemed at the time to be unable to pay for basic health care needs. In one of the House Reports on the issue, Congress noted that Medicaid’s financial partnership between the federal government and the states was created because “these people are the most needy in the country and it is appropriate for medical care costs to be met, first, for these people.” Those most qualified for Medicaid dollars were individuals Congress declared as “categorically needy.” 

In Medina, the Supreme Court just reviewed a case involving South Carolina’s decision to exercise its authority under the Medicaid funding partnership to remove Planned Parenthood from its list of “qualified” providers. Planned Parenthood operates two facilities in South Carolina and claims to provide a host of services at each facility for individuals who qualify for Medicaid coverage. In what can only be described as the understatement of the year, the Supreme Court noted that these two facilities “also perform abortions.”

Notably, South Carolina has at least 140 other medical facilities that qualify to provide Medicaid services and at which any South Carolinian can obtain medical care, in addition to a host of private medical facilities that would also accept Medicaid patients throughout the state. In short, removing Planned Parenthood from the list of qualified providers in South Carolina would not even cause a blip on the radar for Medicaid recipients in the state. 

South Carolina’s Rationale 

Realizing it could continue to provide quality and widespread care to those who need it, without skipping a beat, South Carolina announced in 2018 that it was removing Planned Parenthood from the list of qualified providers under its Medicaid program. The reason?

South Carolina state law prohibits the use of public funds for abortion, and even Medicaid dollars not directly designated for abortion indirectly subsidizes Planned Parenthood’s abortion activities, which violates state law and the ethical standards of its citizens.

In other words, South Carolina made the prudent and principled decision that it refused to give its taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars to an entity designed for nothing more than the murder of innocent children in the womb. Good for South Carolina. More states should follow its prudent path. So, too, should the United States Congress.

Protecting Public Trust and Upholding Ethics 

By excluding abortion-related providers, South Carolina advanced its interests in promoting life and respecting the deeply held convictions of its citizens. This decision isn’t merely a matter of policy preferences; it reflects a bedrock principle: taxpayer funds must never subsidize activities that violate federal laws and basic human decency. Because Planned Parenthood is not only Abortion, Inc., and the largest murderer that has ever existed (in corporate form) — it is also the purveyor of the most grotesque and illegal trafficking of human body parts imaginable.

The state plainly has discretion and a compelling interest in defunding such an entity. In fact, Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief in this case noting the law’s language allows for states to disqualify providers that engage in unethical and illegal practices, in which Planned Parenthood has been credibly implicated.

As Liberty Counsel’s amicus brief demonstrated, Planned Parenthood officials have been caught on tape discussing the sale of fetal tissue, haggling over baby body part prices, and explaining how abortion procedures could be altered to ensure intact organs for sale. And, to add insult to injury, some of these conversations took place while the abortionist casually drank wine and ate a salad, as if the discussion of dismembering living children was just business as usual. Such conduct is not only a flagrant violation of federal law but is also simply abhorrent.

Each state has the right— and indeed a duty — to ensure that its Medicaid dollars do not subsidize an organization engaged in such inhumane and unlawful practices. In fact, given that Medicaid is a taxpayer-funded program, public trust in its integrity is paramount. South Carolina has determined that funneling state funds to Planned Parenthood — an entity implicated in the unlawful sale of fetal tissue — undermines the program’s integrity and betrays the trust of the citizens who fund it. 

South Carolina reserves the right to ensure that its citizens’ taxpayer dollars are not distributed to organizations with a moral compass so lacking that it permits them to dismember living children for profit and describe it to others as if the subject of their abhorrent, grotesque, and unlawful practices was not another living human being. One would search in vain for a more compelling reason to exclude an organization from Medicaid’s program. 

A Precedent for Other States and Congress 

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Medina empowers other states to also cut off Planned Parenthood funding. Planned Parenthood is undeserving of taxpayer funds, and states now have a potent weapon in their arsenal to defund Abortion, Inc.

Disqualifying Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid qualified provider would be a significant blow to the abortion giant and deprive it of essential taxpayer-funded financial calories. Then, if Congress would follow the lead of South Carolina and deprive Planned Parenthood of federal tax dollars, perhaps we could impose on it the same fate it has unconscionably imposed on millions of babies. 

Starve the beast — defund Planned Parenthood.